Chore Wars:
Researcher Finds that Involving Young Children in Household Chores Pays off
Later

by Liz Wolf

Reprinted with permission
of the author from the March 2003 issue of Minnesota Parent, the eclectic
journal of family living. For more information see <www.parenthood.com>.

All parents want their
children to be self-reliant and responsible as they grow into young adults.
New research shows it can be as simple as having them set the table, help with
laundry, pick up their toys, and take out the garbage.

Research by Marty Rossmann,
associate professor of family education at the University of Minnesota, indicates
that parents can have a major impact on their children’s future by encouraging
them to help with tasks around the house.

Rossmann found that having
children take an active role in the household, starting at age three or four
influenced their ability to become well-adjusted young adults. “This is cool
stuff,” says Kris Loubert, a parent educator at the Early Childhood Family Education
(ECFE) program for Minneapolis schools. Loubert has used Rossmann’s research
in her teaching. “It seems there’s payoff to having children help out, beyond
learning how to keep a home in order. Marty’s research shows that it contributes
to their success, and all parents want their children to be successful as they
grow into young adults.”

In her research, Rossmann
used previously unexplored data collected by Diana Baumrind, a well-known researcher
on parenting styles. Baumrind began her study in 1967 using a sample of families
living in the San Francisco area. Rossmann’s own family had been part of that
study. Baumrind collected the data over twenty-five years.

“She gathered a great deal
of data that she didn’t use, and I saw the possibility of doing secondary analysis
of it,” Rossmann says. “I looked at it and saw an enormous amount related to
children’s involvement in household tasks.” Rossmann analyzed the outcomes for
84 young adults based on their parents’ style of interacting, their participation
in family tasks at three periods of their lives-ages 3 to 4, 9 to 10, and 15
to 16—and brief phone interviews when they were in their mid-twenties.

She analyzed variables—including
parenting styles, gender, types of household tasks, time spent on tasks, and
attitudes and motivators associated with doing the tasks—to determine their
impact on the children. She then measured each individual’s “successes.” “I
looked at the outcomes when they were in their mid-twenties, focusing on what
they were doing in regards to completing their education or being on a path
to complete their education, getting started on some type of career path, their
relationships with family and friends, and whether or not they were using drugs,”
Rossmann explains. She also considered IQ’s when doing her analysis.

After examining these issues
and studying all of the possibilities that could influence the outcomes, Rossmann’s
research indicates that the best predictor for young adults’ success in their
mid-twenties is that they participated in household tasks at age three or four.

“Being involved in household
tasks at a young age is what made the difference for a positive outcome,” Rossmann
says. “Through participating in household tasks, parents are teaching children
responsibility, how to contribute to family life, a sense of empathy, and how
to take care of themselves.”

Common wisdom holds that
IQ and motivation have a strong bearing on success, but she found that these
don’t matter as much as participating in household tasks. Even Rossmann was
surprised at the results. “I didn’t expect the outcome,” she says. “I analyzed
it and re-analyzed it. It seems like such a simple area, but it’s a huge area.”

However, Rossmann warns,
don’t wait too long to get children involved around the house. “The key is to
start early,” she says. “If you don’t, it backfires. The study showed that when
a parent started their children in tasks at ages 9 to 10, or worse, 15 to 16,
the children thought that the parent was asking them to do something they didn’t
want to do. They didn’t get the concept of ‘we’re all in this together.’ They
were far too self-centered.” The earlier parents encourage their children to
take an active role in the household, the easier it will be to get them involved
as teenagers, Rossmann concludes.

“Marty’s research is an
incentive for parents to get their children involved at an early age,” ECFE’s
Loubert says. “Now, there’s compelling reason to have children help out.” For
very young children, Rossmann advises that parents keep tasks simple, model
how to do the tasks, work with them and offer lots of encouragement. As children
grow older, pay attention to their learning styles. “Some children need to be
shown several times. Some you can show once, and they pick it up. Some children
need to be told in words. Some need to have it written out,” she says. For example,
a parent might write out what needs to be done to take care of a pet. “There
is no way to say, ‘You have to do it this way.’”

Of course, it takes discipline
on the parents’ part to involve children in daily chores. The number one reason
parents give for not having their children help out is that it is easier to
do it themselves. “One parent said, ‘I know my son likes to vacuum, but he rides
on it and it takes longer,’” Rossmann says.

Rossmann does not believe
in giving allowances for doing household chores. “For me, allowances are important,
but they should be separate from household tasks,” she says. “Allowances help
children manage money at a young age and learn the values connected with money,
but it should not be attached to household chores. Learning about money and
the value connected with money is far too important a lesson to attach it to
household tasks. And household tasks are far too important to be put in a situation
where you take away money as a punishment.”

The best rewards are love
and affection, she says. “Give lots of encouragement for the little jobs your
children do—bringing the dishes to the sink, picking up their toys.” As for
other rewards, Rossmann says putting little stars on a chart for tasks completed
is fine. “They are tangible reminders that we all helped out,” she says. “But
Dad gets a star, too, for taking out the garbage.”

Rossmann hopes to replicate
this initial study with a larger sample of the population and include families
that represent greater diversity.

Jean Illsley Clarke, an
author and director of J.I. Consultants in Plymouth, is using Rossmann’s research
in her soon-to-be-published book on overindulgence, Indulge Them Less, Enjoy
Them More: Finding a Balance Between Giving More and Saying No to Your Children.
In her own research, Clarke found that adults who said they were overindulged
as children cited not having to do household chores as the reason why. By not
being expected to contribute to the family by doing household tasks, these adults
missed out on learning basic skills, which caused distress and embarrassment.

“We conducted in-depth
interviews with adults who said they were overindulged as children, and there
were several big surprises for us,” Clarke says. “People’s impression of overindulgence
is being given too many toys, but we found that the major way people said they
were overindulged was not having to do chores. One person told us she went to
college without ever having learned to do the laundry. She asked her roommate,
‘Which is the washer and which is the dryer?’ She was absolutely ridiculed and
never asked any more questions, so she stumbled along.”

Parents who don’t ask children
do chores may have good intentions, but the impact is negative, Clarke says.
For example, a working mother rushes to get dinner on the table so she can spend
“quality” time with her child, playing or reading. Allowing her child to help
with dinner would slow her down.

This, in fact, is what
the child needs, Clarke says. The child connects with her mother one way when
playing, but she connects in another way when helping to prepare dinner. “She
feels like a contributing member,” Clarke says, and the mother “anchors” that
feeling with her praise and encouragement. Rossmann’s research offers important
information on the role of chores, Clarke says. “We’re coming at it from two
different directions, but coming up with the same picture,” she says. “Marty
observed that those who did chores are competent, and we listened to people
complain that because they didn’t do chores, they are not competent.”